12% Sales Drop of Japan's Anime Media in 1H 2012

by dtshyk
Aug 2, 2012 5:04 PM | 44 Comments

Oricon has released the video media market report for the first half of fiscal 2012. The anime Blu-ray sales were 20.6 billion yen, up 25% compared with the year-earlier period. However, the total anime media sales dropped by 12% due to the 40% decrease in the anime DVD sales.

Chart: Anime Blu-ray & DVD Sales in Japan (1H 2008 - 1H 2012)

Thanks to the big hits of Fate/Zero and Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, the sales of Aniplex and Bandai Visual were increased by 25% and 35%, respectively.

Source: Excite News

20 of 44 Comments Recent Comments

I'd buy anime if it was ¥3,570 per volume. Cheers!

Aug 5, 2012 11:35 PM by jrod

Stop charging $60 for blu-rays with 2 episodes on them and maybe sales wouldn't drop...

Aug 5, 2012 3:23 PM by Racaholic

jmal said:

Vylash said:

RyanSaotome said:
Wait until Fate/Zero 2 finally ships.

When is that, anyway?

September 19th.

Oh geez over a month, thanks

Aug 5, 2012 1:00 AM by Vylash

RyanSaotome said:
Wait until Fate/Zero 2 finally ships.

When is that, anyway?

Aug 4, 2012 2:01 PM by Vylash

Mr_Gutts said:
don't worry mobile suit gundam unicor is gonna pup up the sales all by itself

^This
Unicorn got it covered

Aug 4, 2012 12:59 PM by Kenju

MagicFlier said:

edwd2 said:
LOTS of bad anime recently, spring season didn't have much at all, summer isnt too good either. We need one of those big hits, 2009 and 2010 increase was probably because of K-ON! and FMAB, plus stuff like Gintama in the background, now all of that is over, we're in the dark ages

What happened to Sankarea, Hyouka and Fate/Zero's popularity? As well as a few other particular animes that are currently airing this summer like SAO (Sword Art Online)? I was under the impression that Sword Art Online is getting alot of attention lately..

Sankarea was never very popular in Japan, and was one of the worst selling shows of Spring.

Aug 4, 2012 8:33 AM by RyanSaotome

MagicFlier said:

SAO obviously isn't included in the figures as the volumes haven't come out yet. Nor has the second half of Fate/Zero. Hyouka has only had a couple of volumes out so far and is sacrificing sales/volume by increasing the number of volumes above what would usually be done. Sankarea was a complete flop.

Aug 4, 2012 4:27 AM by kuuderes_shadow

jmal said:

eyerok said:
Something that few people will consider

Probably because it's a stupidly simplistic way of looking at things?

I' like to give you credit for phrasing it like "shows that people want to buy" instead of "good/bad shows", but the post you;'re openly agreeing with made no such distinction.

sometimes the simplest explanation is enough, and those that look for complicated ones are doing too much thinking and not looking at the obvious. The basics of economics is that people normally buy things that 'they think' are worth buying. Maybe the decrease in sales is a case of many releases falling outside that.
Besides I used the word "maybe"...wise ass.

Aug 4, 2012 4:16 AM by eyerok

Aug 4, 2012 1:50 AM by MagicFlier

jmal said:
I still would like to know if western animation is included in this total (since it's usually listed under "anime" by Oricon), as that's a big market in Japan and would influence the overall total as well.

Oricon counts domestic and foreign anime separately. Anyway, the foreign anime market in Japan is relatively small.
Domestic anime Blu-ray + DVD: 32.5 billion yen
Foreign anime Blu-ray + DVD: 2.1 billion yen

jmal said:
I'd be interested to know how other anime-focused distributors fared. Aniplex and Bandai are two of the biggest and they're both up significantly. Do we know about Kadokawa, Pony Canyon, or King Records?

Unfortunately, there is no data of other distributors. The top two account for half of the whole anime market.
Aniplex: 10.1 billion yen
Bandai Visual: 6.5 billion yen

Aug 3, 2012 8:24 PM by dtshyk

don't worry mobile suit gundam unicor is gonna pup up the sales all by itself

Aug 3, 2012 11:46 AM by Mr_Gutts

Add bonuses and special drama CDs to DVD versions and I'll consider buying DVD instead of Limited edition BD or nothing at all (cause those limited edition BD are so fuckin' not cheap...)

Aug 3, 2012 11:28 AM by CG

I wonder how much of that 12% are the Idolmaster G4U volumes that aren't counted. Thats like a total of 90k right there... I wonder if it could get down to just 5% if they counted them.

Aug 3, 2012 10:59 AM by RyanSaotome

Wow. Blu-Ray. O.O I wonder how it will be like during next year's first half.

Aug 3, 2012 10:50 AM by bwub

DvD quality is so 1990's

~

Why buy?

Aug 3, 2012 10:50 AM by Tzu

Detective said:
effing deserved with all the feces that is being churned out

This. Something that few people will consider, but maybe sales are down because there aren't many recent anime that people think are worth buying.

Aug 3, 2012 9:08 AM by eyerok

Why are you blaming BAD Anime?
You should blame Piracy

Aug 3, 2012 7:22 AM by KamiKali

12%? Oh dear....

Well at least we still have the Fate Series and this season we have SAO and Horizon....

though....they're not exatly gonna be 50k sellers are they....

and the other series this summer don't seem to be doing great either.

Aug 3, 2012 3:07 AM by phoenixalia

for me

since bd releases only have some minor correction compared to the dvd's i don't get the point why i need to buy the bd's when i already bought the dvd. and bds cost more.so no.

and yeah. i don't have a bd player.

Aug 3, 2012 2:09 AM by eris04

In a recession, consumer sales for entertainment goods always increase because people seek distraction from reality. That's common knowledge, so the decrease is not suprising.

Aug 3, 2012 1:43 AM by Nidhoeggr

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